THE weekend's sunny weather was sunnier still for the sunshine songs of George Ezra, as the Forestry Commission's Dalby Forest basked in verdant glory for the second of two sold-out Forest Live concerts on Sunday.

These picnic and wet-the-whistle outdoor gatherings go all the better when skies are blue, and England's 6-1 pummelling of Panama heightened the joy still more.

Brixton soul-boy support act Dan Caplen had his Bad Man moment, a minor diversion before the inspired choice of Lightning Seeds' Three Lions (Football's Coming Home) and the Austin Powers theme tune heralded Britain's happiest travelling talesman, George Ezra Barnett, to the stage.

He is a burst of Vitamin C and a droplet of Puck's Midsummer's Night potion in clean-cut pop form, spreading love and yet more happiness with a blast of trumpet and trombone, skipping Calypso rhythms, jaunty lead guitar and that beauteous, down-low but upbeat baritone that so sweetly seduced Sunday's Pretty Shining People of Dalby Forest. 

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There had been a four-year hiatus between his rainbow-radiant debut Wanted On Voyage and this year's chart-topping return, Staying At Tamara's, but the Hertfordshire charmer's hotline to hits is as consistent as Tin Pan Alley, and so Paradise, Don't Matter Now and Shotgun were as gleefully met as Cassy O', Barcelona, Listen To The Man, Blame It On Me and the inevitable closing encore Budapest.

He kept his stories behind the songs soundbite-brief if gently amusing, but his stage-craft confidence keeps on growing, and not quite every song now involves a road trip. What's more, if you are looking for a slowly rising, swooning first-dance glide post your wedding breakfast, George's gorgeous Hold My Girl has just put its hand up for selection.